ODI event: Refugees and migrants: a new global response

Refugees and migrants: a new global response

15 September 2016 15:30 – 17:00 GMT+1 (BST)

Chair

Rula Jebreal @rulajebreal – Journalist, author and foreign policy analyst

Speakers

Introductory remarks: Marta Foresti @martaforesti – Interim Executive Director, ODI

Panellists: 

  • Pam DeLargy @umasalam – Senior Advisor to the UN Special Representative for Migration
  • James Kisia – Executive Director of the International Centre for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Secretary-General of Kenya Red Cross (via videolink)
  • Sara Pantuliano @SaraPantuliano – Managing Director, ODI
  • Heaven Crawley @heavencrawley – Chair in International Migration, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University.

Description

We live in the midst of a major crisis. More than 65 million people globally have been forcibly displaced, and international migration has risen by 41% since 2000. The EU has failed to take a strong stance on international refugee protection and there has been no sense of shared responsibility. Instead, governments in Europe and elsewhere are focusing their efforts – and money – on deterrence, and new deals, like that between the EU and Turkey, which further restrict the movement of people. Yet, despite government failings, at a local level, people want to help. Local volunteers and NGOs have stepped in to not only to assist but to accept refugees and migrants into their countries and communities. But these efforts are not enough without buy-in from political leaders. The world’s first United Nations Summit on Refugees and Migrants is set to take place in New York on 19 September, bringing together leaders from around the world with the aim of strengthening commitments from global governments to respond to the crisis in a more humane and coordinated way. The Summit has enormous potential to bring about change. But will governments commit to share responsibility more equitably to protect refugees and move away from deterrence towards solutions that work for everyone?